The Green Chalice by Mark Coleman

Welcome to the Saints' Club Amelia The Church of England recognizes two Sacraments, two holy practices that point to the big and marvelous works of God. These are Baptism and Holy Communion . We make a lot of Holy Communion. So much so that we give it lots of names: Eucharist, Mass, the Lord's Supper, the Breaking of Bread. But we don't spend so long thinking about Baptism. It's something that happened to us when we were young and not totally with it, and for some of us (your Vicar included !) that's a long time ago...... The last Bishop of Warrington used to encourage candidates for Baptism to remember the anniversaries of their baptisms by lighting the candle they were given.  After all, those of us who are married remember our wedding anniversaries, why not remember the anniversary of our baptism? Why not have another party, exchange gifts ? We have two names for this sacrament: Baptism and Christening.  I rather like the term of Christening, it brings in to our ...

There is the hymn “ O Perfect Love” by Dorothy Frances Gurney. It’s a substantial hymn. There is the song by Simply Red “Perfect Love”   - that’s not so memorable. The Bible verse from 1 John 4.19 is memorable: There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. There is a lot of fear about these days. We hear this weekend from Lady Warsi that David Cameron is adding to the Islamophobia, fear of Muslims by his recent speech. Our Greek friends must be worried about what happens next. And many of us in the Church are frightened of change and wonder what happens next. And we would not be human if we did not have fears for ourselves and our families. We are human after all and we are mortal. So there is a lot of fear about – at a national level, a church level and a personal level. We hear today how the disciples are frightened too (Mark 4.35-end), trapped in a boat with their fearless l...

Mardan Church It was so sad to hear during the services on Mothering Sunday from members of our congregation who are Pakistani Christians about the attacks in the churches Christian neighbourhood of the Pakistani city of Lahore. The BBC reports that more than 70 people were hurt in the explosions , which targeted worshippers attending  at All Saints and the RC Church in the Youhanabad area. I have met the former Bishop of the Diocese of Peshawar, the Rt Revd Mano Rumalshah and remember him talking about how the Church ministers in what he calls a hostile land. Straddling the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Diocese of Peshawar exists in one of the most hostile settings on earth. Taliban forces take refuge in this area, as part of the diocese encompasses a buffer zone or “lawless” area between the two countries where global powers engage in the war against terrorism. According to Bishop Rumalshah, no real border exists because one tribe of people represents the ...

What's your vision and hope in this General Election year ? And I don't mean which way are you going to vote. I am asking the bigger and harder question about what vision you have for the Good Society ? In Matthew, Mark, and Luke we are invited into Jesus' vision of the Kingdom of God . It's a reality now we are told and we see signs of it in the Gospel stories but is also something hoped for, something that we need to work and pray for. Our faith is historic but also engaged with the past, the present and the future. As we say in the Eucharist: "Christ has died, Christ is Risen, Christ will come again." It is this sense of being part of God's people through all time that gives us a unique take on the present. We see the present with the wisdom of the past and the hope of the future. I was very taken with the theme for Church Action on Poverty Sunday on the 15th February . This year they are asking us to explore Visions of a Good Society, in the light of t...

Pilgrimage Some of my best conversations have taken place when walking. Whether with friends or strangers the walking somehow oils the process of meeting others. And even more so when there is a common St Chad's Church Tower purpose, the same destination, the shared goal, as in a pilgrimage. My vicar friend Andy blogs about pilgrim walking . It becomes for him a way of looking at the world.An excerpt from his blog: "There is also something about walking, thinking and reflecting at the same time.  Is there a connection to tacit knowledge where you learn by doing things with your hands?  Perhaps a variant of it?  Certainly it was good to reflect back on the last year which has been hard and good........." I have been helping plan a pilgrimage for Saturday 14th February. We are working with the 3 Faiths Forum and local Churches and Mosques to organise a walk from Rochdale Parish Church, St Chad's to the Golden Mosque and then to St Edmund's , both in Falinge. In ...

I have been asked to read at the forthcoming Holocaust memorial day for Rochdale borough. It's to be held at Middleton Arena on 27 January . It is a privilege to do this and look forward to it, with some heaviness. For these are dark and difficult stories, of hatred of minorities, of poisonous myths, of the mechanics of genocide... and we see them occurring still. So it will be poignant. It was chilling to hear of the attacks on the Kosher supermarket on the 9th January, reminding us all that anti-semitism is still around. I remember reading Martin Gilbert's book Holocaust Journey whilst in Poland in holiday in 1998. I kept looking at the train tracks and thinking to myself: It was those rails that took millions of Jews, Gays and Trades Unionists to their death. I am sure that it is true that we are what we remember. We become the stories we tell and retell. I have come to see this particularly in my research into what we say and do in Church. When we forget to pray about certa...

Advent Journey The idea of a journey, even a pilgrimage, is at the heart of the season of Advent. The four Sundays that take us up to Christmas when we celebrate the birth of Jesus the Christ, are stages on the way to awakening, if we let them be. The Advent countdown, and those four Sundays are like those piles of stones, those cairns which mark ones progress up the hill, through the mist, to the mountain top where you can see for miles and the sun shines. The message of Advent is that it is worth taking that journey, it is good to be prepared for the coming of the Lord Jesus.   Over the years I have taken many photographs of paths.  Somehow the image of a path, whether up hills or over precarious bridges or down into dark unexplored dells, is a metaphor that captures something of the spiritual life. It’s a journey that begins with some trepidation, when it feels like it might be a good idea to stay at home, and then rewards with delight and … to use a very good and almost s...